Ask.com noticed some interesting behavior happening on its Q&A iPhone application. People were trying to have "conversations" in the comments area of the app, according to Ask's Jason Rupp. Much of that chat activity was focused on particular locations. But Ask's Q&A app wasn't intended to support full-blown conversations. Cut to several months later and, just in time for the SXSW conference, Ask is launching a new app focused on local conversations. It's called Ask Around. Location awareness on the phone immediately puts people into the middle of a local conversation. All commen [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Ask: Mobile | Ask: Other

Ask.com was arguably the original Q&A engine. Now the site is seeking to introduce a new product, which leverages both its search assets and the community. We were approached but we've yet to formally speak to someone from IAC about the forthcoming launch. However, Silicon Alley Insider today exposes the PR email outlining the plan: On July 29th, Ask will announce a brand new product aimed at delivering the best answers to people’s questions through a unique hybrid approach (think: a little bit search, a little bit social) that is not available on the Web today. As you know, the se [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Ask: Other | Ask: Web Search

If you're the number four search engine in a market that is looking like it's going to be about two (maybe three) players in the long run, what do you do? If you're Barry Diller and running the parent company of Ask, the search engine in question, you're potentially looking at selling, with Microsoft as a logical buyer. That's all speculation at this point, however. In the meantime, Ask is doing and trying a lot of things to keep users and redefine its role in this new, contracting or consolidating search landscape. Most recently it made a major push into shopping with "deals search." Anoth [...]

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As everyone knows, today is the 8th year anniversary of the terrible 9/11 attacks. Many people, companies and organizations are doing things to remember the day. A lot of people are asking why there is no logo from Google for today. The quick answer is that Google does not do Google Doodles (aka logos) for sad days like this, they typically only do these types of logos for happier occasions. But that does not mean Google is not doing anything. They have partnered up with several organizations and companies to bring together a web site named Make History at 911history.org. The site ha [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Other | Google: APIs | Google: General | Google: Logos | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing | Top News

In the on again off again debate about whether Ask remains serious about search, a new blog post suggests that Ask is making a bid to improve its search index and efficiency, having completed a move to a new datacenter: Our engineers were going to have to spend more time on improving efficiency, and less time on new feature development. So we've been in the planning stages for moving to new datacenter spaces since 2006, and we've executed the move of thousands of systems over the past several months . . . We're excited about our new infrastructure position because it supports new and [...]

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